Currently, the widely used fluorescent lamp is comprised of a lamp tube, a ballast, a starter, and a metal bracket for supporting these parts. Most of the existing ballasts are inductive. This kind of fluorescent lamp has the following defects: (1) it has a high electricity consumption; (2) it makes noises when the ballast works; (3) the replacement procedure of ballast is complex and the labor cost of said replacement is high; (4) the power factor and the intensity of illumination of the fluorescent lamp are low; (5) the lightpipe flashes when starting; (6) the lightpipe cannot remain bright when the power is cut off; (7) when the starter is worn out, the common lightpipe cannot be started as well; (8) the inductive ballast is made of iron and copper, and thus not environment-friendly; (9) the metal bracket plus inductive ballast is over heavy; (10) the harmonic distortion is so high that it seriously pollutes the power source.
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, on Jul. 1, 2000, together with two electric power companies, China Light & Power Group and the Hong Kong Electric Group, put forward a plan, named as “Management For The Demand Of Electric Power”, to help small-and-medium sized enterprises to replace the old inductive ballast and old lightpipe with electricity-saving ballast and electricity-saving lightpipe in the form of subsidies. Continuously promoted by the related companies for a period of time, its evolution is still relatively slow. The main reasons are that, the cost needed for said replacement is too large for many enterprises, and a large number of metal brackets and ballasts after the replacement will render environmental problems.